Blue Jays Discussion Thread (2026)

[Angrioter]

Leo Jimenez DFA. Spencer Miles won final spot bullpen 

[BTS]

So final bullpen I guess is:

Hoffman

Rogers

Varland

Fisher

Fluharty

Little

Nance

Miles

[Governator]

What are your guys thoughts on the BP?

I feel like we're going to wish we had Domínguez back with Garcia out.

[Stangstag]

4 minutes ago, Governator said:

What are your guys thoughts on the BP?

I feel like we're going to wish we had Domínguez back with Garcia out.

I feel like we have 3 pretty reliable arms at the back, although who knows if Hoffman goes gascan mode again. 

And out of the middle guys, 1 will probably surprise us and 1 will probably be DFA s***.

The rest of them should be serviceable.

Can make additions at the deadline as needed.

[Brownie19]

14 minutes ago, Governator said:

What are your guys thoughts on the BP?

I feel like we're going to wish we had Domínguez back with Garcia out.

The Garcia injury stings forsure.

[glory]

19 minutes ago, Governator said:

What are your guys thoughts on the BP?

I feel like we're going to wish we had Domínguez back with Garcia out.

Looks solid enough on paper, but definitely feels like it's missing something. There really isn't anyone on that list that I'd want to be the closer, certainly not Hoffman again after last season. Then again relievers are always available at the deadline so you can reassess from there.

My pie in the sky pipedream is still Tiedemann staying healthy and being that shut down reliever at some point in the season. I doubt it, but that upside at least exists. 

[Jonn]

Glad they didn’t hold onto Leo for the sake of him being out of options. Wasn’t talented enough to make the roster.

[Governator]

35 minutes ago, glory said:

Looks solid enough on paper, but definitely feels like it's missing something. There really isn't anyone on that list that I'd want to be the closer, certainly not Hoffman again after last season. Then again relievers are always available at the deadline so you can reassess from there.

My pie in the sky pipedream is still Tiedemann staying healthy and being that shut down reliever at some point in the season. I doubt it, but that upside at least exists. 

 

Maybe I'm old school but give me flamethrower Varland to close out games over a full season and I think he'd pan out well.  I'd have more confidence in him unless Hoffman from October shows up.

[Brownie19]

8 minutes ago, Jonn said:

Glad they didn’t hold onto Leo for the sake of him being out of options. Wasn’t talented enough to make the roster.

Did Lukes make it instead?

The Leo decision was almost solely about having MI depth at the upper minors.  Kasevich's spring may have eased those concerns enough to take the risk he's claimed.  There will regularly be similar guys available on waivers.

[mphenhef]

23 hours ago, sliderguy35 said:

the IVB comes from the axis the ball is spinning on. All these guys are carry fastball types who are used to keeping their hand behind the ball and spinning it efficiently on an axis between 12:00 and 1:00 on a clock face, so they end up doing the same thing with their changeups. in order to create depth on a changeup, you need to have the ball spinning somewhat sideways at an axis of 2:00 or below on a clock face.

there are 3 ways to achieve this:

1. the old fashioned way of pronating through it. if you take your right hand, face your palm down, and then try turning your hand to point your thumb down, that's pronating through the baseball. by getting to the "inside" of it, you're brute forcing the side-spin (see: devin williams, logan henderson or ryan pepiot). it used to be the only way the changeup was taught, but now it's a lot more rare since we know that some guys just cant get their hand into that position and also throw hard. based on cease's high arm slot and spin efficiencies, he's not really a candidate for this.
    
2. use seam shifted wake to get the air pressure around the ball to shift the axis of the ball down mid-flight. by positioning the seams of the ball correctly when you release, the ball's axis naturally gets pushed down past that 2:00 range, giving it late movement (this is what skubal's changeup does). caveat here being that you need to spin the ball with a certain level of efficiency (usually 70-85%) or else the air pressure won't catch properly and you'll have a floating duck of a changeup. cease and skubal are actually nearly identical in terms of release height / arm angle / spin efficiencies, so I was hoping this was the route they would try to implement.
    
3. use your fingers to manually kick the axis down past 2:00. this is the "kick-change" that everyone is picking up recently. by spiking the middle finger, it forces the axis of the ball down at release to the correct range to get depth. it's an awkward grip to hold but it doesn't really require any additional finger / wrist dexterity at release to do and can be used at basically any arm slot, which is why it's caught on like wildfire. ultimately i figured this would be where the jays landed since it's the new / trendy way to go about teaching a changeup.

instead it doesn't look like cease's changeup is trying to do any of the 3 things above, he's pretty clearly holding some kind of stock changeup grip & spinning it on the same axis as his fastball, which is why it's carrying so much. maybe he couldn't really get the feel of seam shifting it & the kick grip was really uncomfortable in his hand? or maybe the jays really do like this carry changeup shape for some reason & think it's good enough as a 5-10% usage pitch as is. 

Who are you?  Do you work in baseball or just very passionate about it?  

[Jays24]

Guess I was right about Jimenez.  Would have been horrible to let guys who contributed to the world series run start in AAA because of Leo f***ing Jimenez. 

Still hope he passes through waivers, it would be good to have some depth at the position.  

[Jonn]

49 minutes ago, Brownie19 said:

Did Lukes make it instead?

The Leo decision was almost solely about having MI depth at the upper minors.  Kasevich's spring may have eased those concerns enough to take the risk he's claimed.  There will regularly be similar guys available on waivers.

I don’t think Lukes was ever a threat to not make the roster. The narrative that he might be so they can hold onto players without options was always weird to me.

[Laika]

It sucks to lose Jimenez but it happens in the sport

He has always been solid in the minors and was getting 50 grade defense rankings as a shortstop. Just burned up his option years and then had some injuries that kind of robbed him of a chance to get better or show how good he could be, while he was on the 40 man. 

He played like a 1.5 WAR shortstop in the majors in 2024 and projects similarly right now. But kind of one of those guys who is either a starter or a pure backup... not super useful as a utility guy since he's not a base stealer or a pinch hit homer dude or someone who has demonstrated that he can cover, say, SS and CF. 

Could be an Otto Lopez situation. He was a solid prospect, got squeezed, then was immediately a capable starter elsewhere. 

[glory]

It wouldn't shock me if Jimenez becomes a ~2 WAR 2B somewhere else. I think what hurt him more than the injuries and lack of options is not being versatile defensively. He can play SS but is he a SS? He didn't look great there in 2024. I think he's more likely a 2B, which limits his upside and utility to the Jays. Kasevich might be more likely to be able to cover SS/2B/3B which gives him more of a utility IF profile. I think the Jays could have tried a Gimenez/Jimenez platoon at 2B, but they would have had to demote Lukes or DS, which was never going to happen. I actually thought they were going to trade Lukes, especially after acquiring Sanchez, but I guess their plan is to start Sanchez or Lukes depending on the type of RHP they are facing, with DS getting LF against a LHP. 

[Vancouverite]

4 hours ago, BTS said:

So final bullpen I guess is:

Hoffman

Rogers

Varland

Fisher

Fluharty

Little

Nance

Miles

Decent enough for opening day.

It'll look much different come July than come August. Garcia, Bieber, Yesavage and Berrios all on IL to start too. 

Miles will for sure end up being designated sooner than later... as early as guys start coming off IL.

I would've preferred we gave Seabold a shot...

[Brownie19]

3 hours ago, Jays24 said:

Guess I was right about Jimenez.  Would have been horrible to let guys who contributed to the world series run start in AAA because of Leo f***ing Jimenez. 

Still hope he passes through waivers, it would be good to have some depth at the position.  

What do you think you were "right" about?  Simply that the FO would DFA Jimenez over optioning Lukes?  

You want a gold star for guessing correctly on something with a 50/50 outcome? 

If you're suggesting this was an obvious move and there's no way they'd consider optioning Lukes - I don't think this result confirms or denies that at all.

MI depth is a real thing - especially for a team that will be contending in a VERY difficult AL East.  I fully expect the FO looked at this in depth before making any decision.  How'd Leo look this spring, how'd Kasevich look, play and fit in - is he finally healthy?  What other MI's might be on the waiver wire this year?  How'd Schneider look defensively at 2nd?

This move comes with risk and god knows you'll be the first in line to sh*t on the FO if Gimenez breaks his leg and Kasevich's back becomes an issue again - or Schneider is back to hitting .192.

The margin for error this year is razer thin.  We have OF depth at the ML level and the upper minors.  As harsh as it is, nobody should give a f*ck about Lukes' feelings (and Ioved the Lukes story last year).  He's a 31 year old journeyman who's had 500 effective PA's in his career and is more likely to turn back into a pumpkin this year than he is to contribute.

Nobody is "right" or "wrong" - it's just whether this decision comes back to bite us in the *ss or not.

[max silver]

1 hour ago, Brownie19 said:

What do you think you were "right" about?  Simply that the FO would DFA Jimenez over optioning Lukes?  

You want a gold star for guessing correctly on something with a 50/50 outcome? 

If you're suggesting this was an obvious move and there's no way they'd consider optioning Lukes - I don't think this result confirms or denies that at all.

MI depth is a real thing - especially for a team that will be contending in a VERY difficult AL East.  I fully expect the FO looked at this in depth before making any decision.  How'd Leo look this spring, how'd Kasevich look, play and fit in - is he finally healthy?  What other MI's might be on the waiver wire this year?  How'd Schneider look defensively at 2nd?

This move comes with risk and god knows you'll be the first in line to sh*t on the FO if Gimenez breaks his leg and Kasevich's back becomes an issue again - or Schneider is back to hitting .192.

The margin for error this year is razer thin.  We have OF depth at the ML level and the upper minors.  As harsh as it is, nobody should give a f*ck about Lukes' feelings (and Ioved the Lukes story last year).  He's a 31 year old journeyman who's had 500 effective PA's in his career and is more likely to turn back into a pumpkin this year than he is to contribute.

Nobody is "right" or "wrong" - it's just whether this decision comes back to bite us in the *ss or not.

Who peed in your cornflakes this morning?

[Jays24]

5 minutes ago, max silver said:

Who peed in your cornflakes this morning?

Haha guy went off.  Anything more than 2 paragraphs is a no-no lol.  

[Perfect Game]

6 hours ago, mphenhef said:

Who are you?  Do you work in baseball or just very passionate about it?  

He stated last year that he's a forum regular who's name I can't remember & that these posts are AI responses to questions he's submitted.

[Brownie19]

33 minutes ago, Perfect Game said:

He stated last year that he's a forum regular who's name I can't remember & that these posts are AI responses to questions he's submitted.

c'mon - is this true?  I must have missed that.

[Spanky__99]

1 hour ago, Perfect Game said:

He stated last year that he's a forum regular who's name I can't remember & that these posts are AI responses to questions he's submitted.

What? lol... nah man.

[Brownie19]

13 hours ago, max silver said:

Who peed in your cornflakes this morning?

Teaching opportunity.  Does nobody recall the IKF experience last year?  MI depth matters FFS.

[Stangstag]

https://www.theplayerstribune.com/ernie-clement-toronto-blue-jays-mlb-baseball

Ernie Clement letter to the fans

[John_Havok]

12 hours ago, Brownie19 said:

Teaching opportunity.  Does nobody recall the IKF experience last year?  MI depth matters FFS.

Agreed that MIF depth is important. But... 

I just never bought the Leo Jimenez stock. I didn't see anything about him that stood out (which is many times a good thing to be fair). 

You could see he had some power, but he didn't swing like he wanted to use it. Passive approaches at the plate. Not quite Craig Biggio's son's level of passivity but like... he wasn't looking to make a difference, he was just trying to survive. 

That's my own (admittedly flawed) eye-test that he failed in combination with not exactly standout numbers. I've never been a fan of Leo. Yes, he's good enough defensively to play SS in the major leagues, but his mindset of what he's doing at the plate is what's holding him back from being an actual major league regular. 

[L54]

Any Sandbagger fans? This is going to be a beauty 

Imagine telling the Buffalo Boys five years ago they’d be doing a Sandbagger with the chiclets guys fresh off a World Series appearance. What a ride 

[Terminator]

Sucks to lose Leo, but I get it.

• He’s added a lot of weight and may not be a plus defender at SS anymore. Not fat, just stockier now at 5'10", 215.

• His OBP is promising, but it relies a lot on getting beaned and his walk rate probably takes a dive without much power at the MLB level.

• It would be tough to option Lukes, who’s a solid player at the end of his prime, and DFA’ing Straw probably means losing him since he has five years of service time. The Power of Friendship wins.

• The team is high on Kasevich and he had a good spring, he might be the better option anyway.

• Leo doesn’t have a huge ceiling to me, and it’s possible no team claims him since everyone is making tough roster decisions right now.

• If the Jays need infield depth later, they could probably trade for someone similar without giving up much.

 

[Stangstag]

Damn it sucks the Jays aren’t playing today

[Terminator]

37 minutes ago, Stangstag said:

Damn it sucks the Jays aren’t playing today

I think they were supposed to but the team lobbied the league to move it to Friday.

[mphenhef]

On 3/25/2026 at 3:27 PM, Governator said:

What are your guys thoughts on the BP?

I feel like we're going to wish we had Domínguez back with Garcia out.

The bullpen going into last year was Hoffman, Yimi, Chad Green, Little, Sandlin, Yariel, Barnes and Lovelady.  This pen is MUCH better than that imo.

[mphenhef]

3 hours ago, Stangstag said:

https://www.theplayerstribune.com/ernie-clement-toronto-blue-jays-mlb-baseball

Ernie Clement letter to the fans

Great read, who's cutting onions?